Advertisement
In its latest episode titled “The Price,” The Last of Us Season 2 takes a major turn from the storyline of the original video game. This time, instead of focusing on the current events, the show takes us back in time to 1983, deep into Texas, giving us a rare and emotional look at Joel Miller’s teenage years.
We meet a young Joel, played by Andrew Diaz, who’s shown trying to shield his younger brother, Tommy, from their father’s anger. This powerful moment not only highlights Joel’s protective nature from an early age but also reveals something unexpected: Joel’s father, Javier Miller, is actually a police officer. This was a shocking twist for fans and marked one of the most surprising guest appearances in the series so far.
Javier is played by Tony Dalton, a well-known face on television. If you’ve seen Better Call Saul, you’ll remember him as the chilling and charismatic Lalo Salamanca. He also popped up in Marvel’s Hawkeye and will be appearing in Daredevil: Born Again as Jack Duquesne, aka the Swordsman.
Even though Tony Dalton only appears in a single scene in The Last of Us, his performance leaves a strong impact. His portrayal of Javier helps peel back the layers of Joel’s personality, giving us a better understanding of how Joel grew into the complex and hardened man we see in the show today. It also ties into one of the show’s deeper themes, how our past and the people who raise us shape who we become, for better or worse.
Joel’s interactions with his father hint at his actions in ‘The Last of Us’
As soon as Joel and Tommy’s dad walks through the front door, he’s already fuming. He’s been called home from work mid-shift, he’s a police officer, and he wants answers immediately. Without missing a beat, Joel steps up and lies, claiming that he was the one caught buying drugs, not Tommy. His dad isn’t buying it, though—he’s already heard the real story from his fellow officers. Still, Joel sticks to his lie, refusing to let Tommy take the fall. It’s clear he’s ready to take whatever punishment is coming, including what seems to be a beating, just to protect his little brother.
This early moment in Joel’s life echoes a much bigger choice he makes years later, saving Ellie in Season 1’s finale, “Look for the Light.” In that episode, Joel goes full rogue and takes down an entire team of Fireflies, the rebel group that wanted to use Ellie to create a cure for the Cordyceps virus. The catch? The operation would have killed her. Joel couldn’t bear to lose her, so he didn’t let it happen, even if it meant dooming humanity’s best chance at survival.
Fast forward to Season 2’s “The Price” and we see that this choice is still haunting him. Ellie finally confronts him about what happened that day. Joel doesn’t even try to defend himself, he just breaks down, his silent tears and a slow, shameful nod confirming everything. That moment shatters something between them. Ellie no longer sees him as the hero she once trusted. It’s a painful echo of how protective love can sometimes cross into selfishness.
The flashback is followed by another gut punch: On Ellie’s 19th birthday, Joel takes her out on a patrol. It’s meant to be a nice, bonding moment, until they stumble upon Eugene (played by Joe Pantoliano), a fellow resident from Jackson, who’s been bitten by an infected. Joel promises Ellie they’ll take Eugene back to his wife, Gail (played by Catherine O’Hara). But instead, he quietly leads Eugene into an open field and shoots him, ending his life quickly and sparing him the transformation. Later, Joel lies to Gail about how it all happened.
This moment shows the darker side of Joel’s protective nature. Just like with the Fireflies, he makes the decision he thinks is right, lies to the people involved, and moves on, at least on the surface. But for Ellie, it’s the last straw. Eugene’s death finally makes her realise Joel hasn’t been honest about a lot of things. It confirms the worst of her suspicions about what really went down at the Firefly hospital. And though she still cares for Joel, their bond is never the same again. The emotional distance sticks with them until the day Joel dies, never fully healed, never fully forgiven.
Tony Dalton’s Cameo in ‘The Last of Us’ talks about something deeper than we think
When Joel and his dad, Javier, finally have a heart-to-heart fight, Javier opens up about his own tough childhood. He tells Joel about a time when, as a kid, he got into trouble and his own father punished him so harshly that it broke his jaw. After sharing this painful memory, Javier ends with a simple but powerful hope: “If you ever have kids of your own, I hope you do a little better than me.”
That line really sums up the core struggle at the centre of The Last of Us Season 2. It’s the big question the show keeps coming back to: Do you keep repeating the cycle of violence and pain you inherited? Or do you try to find a better way?
This question is woven into the journeys of several key characters. Abby (played by Kaitlyn Dever) is out for revenge against Joel because he killed her father, one of the surgeons who was going to operate on Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie is hunting Abby after losing Joel in a brutal confrontation. So the show explores this painful back-and-forth of revenge and loss, asking if it’s possible to break free.
What really drives this home is how Joel, in a later scene, repeats those exact same words his dad said to Ellie, the night before he dies. Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of The Last of Us, explains that this moment is super important:
“Joel’s doing the best he can with what he’s got. He loves Ellie unconditionally. We’ve spent a season and a half with him, so we know he’s done some really dark things, but he’s also tried to rise above his past. The arc of this episode shows that with reflection and intention, we can make better choices. But that requires looking back at who we were and deciding, ‘I want to be a better parent than mine was.’”
Most of “The Price” shows Joel trying to live up to that hope. Every year on Ellie’s birthday, he makes a point to celebrate it in his own way—from baking a cake and giving her a handmade guitar to taking her to a cool, abandoned museum where they see the Apollo 15 moon rover. Even when Joel catches Ellie doing rebellious stuff like smoking weed or getting a tattoo, he doesn’t respond with anger or violence like his dad might have. Instead, he helps her build a separate bedroom in the garage—giving her some space while still staying close to her. It’s clear Joel is doing his best to be a better dad than the one he had.
Even though Tony Dalton’s role as Javier isn’t huge in The Last of Us, every moment he’s on screen carries a lot of emotional weight. His quiet, regretful delivery of Javier’s story shows a man trying to break the cycle of violence in his own way. Dalton’s brief role was so powerful that Neil Druckmann was inspired enough to cast him again in Naughty Dog’s upcoming game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
By shining a light on Joel’s past, The Last of Us Season 2 uses its most surprising cameo to remind us of the story’s main themes—how the past shapes us, and the struggle to choose a better path. These themes are building up to something big, and fans will finally see how it all comes together when the season finale premieres next Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.